Stardate: 3478.2
Synopsis: On an exploratory mission, several crew members are killed by a mysterious gas cloud. Kirk recognizes it as the same cloud that decimated the crew of the USS Faragut 11 years earlier, of which he was a member. His guilt and intuition drive Kirk to obsessively chase it after it departs into space, and once back "home" to the site of where the Faragut had been destroyed, Kirk and Ensign Garavik, son of the Faragut's captain, bait the cloud into an anti-matter explosion, killing it, and leaving the Enterprise free to deliver medical supplies to another ship that's been waiting for them this whole time.
Review: Only this series can make so much of a gas cloud, and that's why we love it. It camouflages itself by changing its molecular structure; like turning "gold into lead" or "wood into ivory"; it is described as "something that can't possibly exist, but does". Yummmm.
If you read into the title of the episode, "Obsession", you would think the core of the story lies with Kirk's Moby Dick-like obsession with revenge against the cloud (perhaps laying the groundwork for Captain Picard's obsession with the Borg a bit later down the road, but I digress), and for a while that's how it plays out. But this episode grows stronger than that. The whole dynamic with Ensign Garavik assuming the guilt-laden role of the younger Kirk adds a layer of complexity, and indeed the central importance of the Faragut's demise 11 years earlier with its ill-fated Captain Garavik as well as a young Lieutenant Kirk ties everything together in what's really a psychological examination of our main players. Your brain keeps returning to this.
And that's not even the best part. Kirk becomes reflective, wondering aloud if his actions are based on intuition or just irrational. This themed conflict is nothing new to the series, but what's fresh here is that it's Kirk who is the centerpiece of the debate, in contrast to how it's usually Spock. And he proves to be a good vehicle for it.
This would definitely get a 4-star review if it weren't for the gas cloud being, well, a gas cloud.
Review: 3 stars
Episode 42: The Deadly Years
Stardate: 3478.2
Synopsis: The Enterprise crew beams down to the colony on Gamma Hydra 4 to find that, surprise, all of the inhabitants are prematurely old and dying. Naturally, once back on board the ship, all of the crew members who had beamed down to the planet are aging prematurely now too. That's basically the entire story. Oh yeah, an antidote is found and everyone returns to normal.
Review: It's somewhat amazing they managed to take this plot and develop a full hour's worth of TV for it. Sure, they added a little wrinkle of Spock and Commodore Stocker removing Kirk from command by holding a long, drawn-out competency hearing, and there was a totally worthless side trip involving Jan and the love affair she and Kirk apparently had several years ago, but these went nowhere; as did the pointless "battle" with the Romulans at the end. And radiation in a comet's tail is not the most intellectually stimulating of culprits.
My 7-year-old niece could have predicted the outcome here and identified early on how Chekhov being the only crew member who beamed down to the planet not being affected by the rapid aging sickness was the key. The only real insight offered was how the writers apparently associate little else with being old than being cranky. Which is how I feel right now after viewing this thing. ROARRRR!!!
Review: 2 stars
Synopsis: The Enterprise crew beams down to the colony on Gamma Hydra 4 to find that, surprise, all of the inhabitants are prematurely old and dying. Naturally, once back on board the ship, all of the crew members who had beamed down to the planet are aging prematurely now too. That's basically the entire story. Oh yeah, an antidote is found and everyone returns to normal.
Review: It's somewhat amazing they managed to take this plot and develop a full hour's worth of TV for it. Sure, they added a little wrinkle of Spock and Commodore Stocker removing Kirk from command by holding a long, drawn-out competency hearing, and there was a totally worthless side trip involving Jan and the love affair she and Kirk apparently had several years ago, but these went nowhere; as did the pointless "battle" with the Romulans at the end. And radiation in a comet's tail is not the most intellectually stimulating of culprits.
My 7-year-old niece could have predicted the outcome here and identified early on how Chekhov being the only crew member who beamed down to the planet not being affected by the rapid aging sickness was the key. The only real insight offered was how the writers apparently associate little else with being old than being cranky. Which is how I feel right now after viewing this thing. ROARRRR!!!
Review: 2 stars
Episode 41: Friday's Child
Stardate: 3497.2
Synopsis: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to Cappella 4 in order to negotiate a new mining treaty. The Cappellans are a violent race, and when a Klingon emerges from among them, an Enterprise crewman is immediately killed. Soon, a coup d'etat takes place where Ma'ob (who is pro-Klingon) takes over the 10 tribes from Ak'ahar (pro-Federation), putting Kirk et al on the run. As a chase ensues through the Los Angeles, I mean Cappellan, desert, Ak'ahar's wife gives birth to a child she doesn't want and names McCoy the new father, all while Kirk and Spock fend off the Cappellans with homemade bows and arrows until, finally, Scottie arrives to save the day.
Review: You can't make this stuff up. The Cappellans are not exactly the most complex alien race we've encountered, and their hyper-colorful wardrobe and super-choppy way of speaking ("I must consider the words I have heard") serve no purpose other than to distract.
That said, there are some positive elements here. The Klingon acts as the wild card protagonist to an otherwise nondescript plotline. He keeps it interesting. McCoy features prominently as he first slaps a pregnant woman and later quips, "I'm a doctor, not an escalator". Also, the Enterprise being diverted by a fictional Klingon-produced distress signal as well as the chase sequence through the desert, coupled with Ak'ahar's wife giving birth in a cave, all make for some decent fodder. Except using the communicators' sound waves to cause a rock slide still makes my scientific brain cringe (imagine that happening with cell phones; come on.) and to explain that, just before a space battle, the Klingon ship simply turned away because it "didn't have the stomach for a fight" is pretty weak.
Overall, not bad, but not great. Put it this way... through much of the episode I had to ask myself what was even happening in the story.
Review: 3 stars
Synopsis: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to Cappella 4 in order to negotiate a new mining treaty. The Cappellans are a violent race, and when a Klingon emerges from among them, an Enterprise crewman is immediately killed. Soon, a coup d'etat takes place where Ma'ob (who is pro-Klingon) takes over the 10 tribes from Ak'ahar (pro-Federation), putting Kirk et al on the run. As a chase ensues through the Los Angeles, I mean Cappellan, desert, Ak'ahar's wife gives birth to a child she doesn't want and names McCoy the new father, all while Kirk and Spock fend off the Cappellans with homemade bows and arrows until, finally, Scottie arrives to save the day.
Review: You can't make this stuff up. The Cappellans are not exactly the most complex alien race we've encountered, and their hyper-colorful wardrobe and super-choppy way of speaking ("I must consider the words I have heard") serve no purpose other than to distract.
That said, there are some positive elements here. The Klingon acts as the wild card protagonist to an otherwise nondescript plotline. He keeps it interesting. McCoy features prominently as he first slaps a pregnant woman and later quips, "I'm a doctor, not an escalator". Also, the Enterprise being diverted by a fictional Klingon-produced distress signal as well as the chase sequence through the desert, coupled with Ak'ahar's wife giving birth in a cave, all make for some decent fodder. Except using the communicators' sound waves to cause a rock slide still makes my scientific brain cringe (imagine that happening with cell phones; come on.) and to explain that, just before a space battle, the Klingon ship simply turned away because it "didn't have the stomach for a fight" is pretty weak.
Overall, not bad, but not great. Put it this way... through much of the episode I had to ask myself what was even happening in the story.
Review: 3 stars
Episode 40: Journey to Babel
Stardate: 3842.3
Synopsis: The Enterprise is shuttling dozens of ambassadors to an interplanetary conference where they will decide whether to admit Coridan into the Federation. One of these ambassadors is actually Spock's father, Sarek, ad it's clear that they don't get along. While the politics play out, an alien ship appears to be following the Enterprise, then a Teleric ambassador is murdered, and then Kirk himself is attacked and stabbed(!) totally out of the blue by an Andurian. Meanwhile, Sarek has a heart attack, leading Spock to have to choose between saving his father's life with a blood transfusion or saving the ship from the alien threat. In the end, we learn it was the Orions - not the Andurians - who are behind everything, as they sought the plant the seeds of mistrust among the delegates in order for interplanetary war to break out where they could be the profiteers. Typical!
Review: Strong material here, and lots of fun. The interplay between Spock and Sarek and Spock's mother lends a personal touch to the galactic politics. It's revealed that Spock played with a "fat teddy bear" as a child and at one point he deadpans, "I will need more data for my instrument." How dirty!
The heart of the story lies in how the Spock-needing-to-save-Sarek's-life runs parallel to the murder-mystery plot among the diplomats. Accusations fly and stubbornness persists in both, yet on the one hand, Spock is attempting to act selflessly in choosing the ship's safety and his duty over that of the life of his father, whereas on the other hand, the Orions (and before them the Telerics) were acting selfishly in pursuit of only their own interests. I suppose the moral is which is ultimately the more beneficial path.
This episode really has it all: heart attacks, blood transfusions, father-son relationship drama, an exploration of Vulcan eccentricities, hostile alien ships, fistfights, stabbings, the ominous threat of war. And it handles it well (other than the we-needed-5-more-minutes-to-better-explain ending where it's just obvious to everyone that the Orions were the culprit and their motives were very clear). But with so much going on, McCoy shushing everybody in the final scene seems appropriate.
Review: 4 stars
Synopsis: The Enterprise is shuttling dozens of ambassadors to an interplanetary conference where they will decide whether to admit Coridan into the Federation. One of these ambassadors is actually Spock's father, Sarek, ad it's clear that they don't get along. While the politics play out, an alien ship appears to be following the Enterprise, then a Teleric ambassador is murdered, and then Kirk himself is attacked and stabbed(!) totally out of the blue by an Andurian. Meanwhile, Sarek has a heart attack, leading Spock to have to choose between saving his father's life with a blood transfusion or saving the ship from the alien threat. In the end, we learn it was the Orions - not the Andurians - who are behind everything, as they sought the plant the seeds of mistrust among the delegates in order for interplanetary war to break out where they could be the profiteers. Typical!
Review: Strong material here, and lots of fun. The interplay between Spock and Sarek and Spock's mother lends a personal touch to the galactic politics. It's revealed that Spock played with a "fat teddy bear" as a child and at one point he deadpans, "I will need more data for my instrument." How dirty!
The heart of the story lies in how the Spock-needing-to-save-Sarek's-life runs parallel to the murder-mystery plot among the diplomats. Accusations fly and stubbornness persists in both, yet on the one hand, Spock is attempting to act selflessly in choosing the ship's safety and his duty over that of the life of his father, whereas on the other hand, the Orions (and before them the Telerics) were acting selfishly in pursuit of only their own interests. I suppose the moral is which is ultimately the more beneficial path.
This episode really has it all: heart attacks, blood transfusions, father-son relationship drama, an exploration of Vulcan eccentricities, hostile alien ships, fistfights, stabbings, the ominous threat of war. And it handles it well (other than the we-needed-5-more-minutes-to-better-explain ending where it's just obvious to everyone that the Orions were the culprit and their motives were very clear). But with so much going on, McCoy shushing everybody in the final scene seems appropriate.
Review: 4 stars
Episode 39: Metamorphosis
Stardate: 3219.8
Synopsis: While transporting a Starfleet commissioner in order to end a war, the Galileo shuttlecraft is taken into the tractor beam of a strange ion field. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the commissioner are placed on a planet where they're met by a man marooned there 150 years ago. It is the famous Zephram Cochrane who invented space warp, and from the movie, First Contact. The ion field has kept Cochrane young and brought the others to keep him company. We soon discover the reason is that the ion field is actually a female ion field and loves him. Needing to escape soon before the commissioner dies of a rare disease, Kirk convinces the ion field that captivity would kill Cochrane's spirit, if not, his body, thus enticing it to take on human form through the Commissioner's body. Cochrane stays with her on the planet when the others leave, ending the galactic love story walking off towards a purple-sky horizon.
Review: Maybe it's just that the previous few episodes were so bad that this one seemed so solid. The manufactured love story between The Man (Cochrane) and The Companion (the ion field) is perversely weird, yet somehow believable. The plot's best turn is when Kirk wonders aloud, "How do you fight a thing like that?" and McCoy responds that maybe fighting it is the wrong way to perceive the problem - "more carrot, less stick".
This episode really gets an unintended boost from the presence of Zephram Cochrane who was, of course, featured in perhaps the best Star Trek movie ever after The Wrath of Khan, giving it some meaningfulness in the larger Trek mythology. Somehow that just makes it seem important.
The story is oddly compelling and manages to overcome the ridiculousness of a man falling in love with a gas cloud the way only Star Trek can. The effusive cheesiness at the end is forgivable, but we could do without the seemingly obligatory speech on humans needing obstacles to overcome.
Review: 4 stars
Synopsis: While transporting a Starfleet commissioner in order to end a war, the Galileo shuttlecraft is taken into the tractor beam of a strange ion field. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the commissioner are placed on a planet where they're met by a man marooned there 150 years ago. It is the famous Zephram Cochrane who invented space warp, and from the movie, First Contact. The ion field has kept Cochrane young and brought the others to keep him company. We soon discover the reason is that the ion field is actually a female ion field and loves him. Needing to escape soon before the commissioner dies of a rare disease, Kirk convinces the ion field that captivity would kill Cochrane's spirit, if not, his body, thus enticing it to take on human form through the Commissioner's body. Cochrane stays with her on the planet when the others leave, ending the galactic love story walking off towards a purple-sky horizon.
Review: Maybe it's just that the previous few episodes were so bad that this one seemed so solid. The manufactured love story between The Man (Cochrane) and The Companion (the ion field) is perversely weird, yet somehow believable. The plot's best turn is when Kirk wonders aloud, "How do you fight a thing like that?" and McCoy responds that maybe fighting it is the wrong way to perceive the problem - "more carrot, less stick".
This episode really gets an unintended boost from the presence of Zephram Cochrane who was, of course, featured in perhaps the best Star Trek movie ever after The Wrath of Khan, giving it some meaningfulness in the larger Trek mythology. Somehow that just makes it seem important.
The story is oddly compelling and manages to overcome the ridiculousness of a man falling in love with a gas cloud the way only Star Trek can. The effusive cheesiness at the end is forgivable, but we could do without the seemingly obligatory speech on humans needing obstacles to overcome.
Review: 4 stars
Episode 38: I, Mudd
Stardate: 4513.3
Synopsis: A crewman mysteriously and suddenly takes control of the Enterprise then commands Kirk and company to the surface of a planet, four days warp away. Harry Mudd, swindler from Season 1, is controlling the crewman, who's actually an android, as well as the whole population of androids on the planet whose aim is to "serve" humans in order to control them, and consequently, the entire galaxy. They soon revolt against Mudd himself, but being androids, they are easily outwitted by displays of illogical human behavior, and thus their brains blow up.
Review: Of all episodes in the series so far, why was Harry Mudd, of all things, deemed worthy of a sequel? What a sorry run of episodes we're currently in the middle of. The ship is taken over - again. The crew members can have everything they desire simply by asking for it - again. Attractive fembots can't handle irrational behavior so their heads fry up - again. There's not an original idea to be found.
Even Kirk finds Mudd to be comical, which precludes even the remote possibility of any real drama developing. The android master plan for taking over the galaxy is to serve humans, thereby leading to dependency? C'mon. Super-campy scenes of Starfleet officers dancing an imaginary waltz amongst other embarrassing things. Ugh. Painful to watch. Mudd's ultimate punishment being marooned with android copies of his wife? Par for the course in terms of the rampant mysoginism to be found everywhere here. Even the plot's turning point of the realization that "obviously this many androids cannot operate independently; there must be a central relay command center" (discovered to be the single Norman model) reads as a farcical relic from pre-Internet days.
I can keep going, but why bother?
I just wonder to what extent this pre-occupation with painting logic in a negative light is actually a jab against Vulcans. Throw it down Council members!
Review: 1 star
Synopsis: A crewman mysteriously and suddenly takes control of the Enterprise then commands Kirk and company to the surface of a planet, four days warp away. Harry Mudd, swindler from Season 1, is controlling the crewman, who's actually an android, as well as the whole population of androids on the planet whose aim is to "serve" humans in order to control them, and consequently, the entire galaxy. They soon revolt against Mudd himself, but being androids, they are easily outwitted by displays of illogical human behavior, and thus their brains blow up.
Review: Of all episodes in the series so far, why was Harry Mudd, of all things, deemed worthy of a sequel? What a sorry run of episodes we're currently in the middle of. The ship is taken over - again. The crew members can have everything they desire simply by asking for it - again. Attractive fembots can't handle irrational behavior so their heads fry up - again. There's not an original idea to be found.
Even Kirk finds Mudd to be comical, which precludes even the remote possibility of any real drama developing. The android master plan for taking over the galaxy is to serve humans, thereby leading to dependency? C'mon. Super-campy scenes of Starfleet officers dancing an imaginary waltz amongst other embarrassing things. Ugh. Painful to watch. Mudd's ultimate punishment being marooned with android copies of his wife? Par for the course in terms of the rampant mysoginism to be found everywhere here. Even the plot's turning point of the realization that "obviously this many androids cannot operate independently; there must be a central relay command center" (discovered to be the single Norman model) reads as a farcical relic from pre-Internet days.
I can keep going, but why bother?
I just wonder to what extent this pre-occupation with painting logic in a negative light is actually a jab against Vulcans. Throw it down Council members!
Review: 1 star
Episode 37: Catspaw
Stardate: 3018.2
Synopsis: While beaming back to the ship, Sulu and Scottie go missing and crewman Jackson dies, replaced with a robotic voice saying that the ship is cursed and they'll all die. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to find a haunted house complete with witches, black cats, and other ghoulish imagery. Turns out to be an alien race that can control minds - it's all an illusion - and only an internal feud between Corab and Sylvia makes their escape from captivity possible. Kirk gets the transmuter to destroy the illusion and the two aliens are exposed to be little ankle-high nerf creatures who die shortly thereafter.
Review: There are some cool lines to be found here, but not much substance. "You can't think a man to death" - "I'll bet you credits to navy beans we can put a dent in it" - ghosts, witches, cats belonging to "the twilight world of consciousness".
But all of the haunted house imagery revolved around the notion that they knew what terrified Man the most, at an instinctive level. But the imagery was actually pretty lame and this psychological aspect to fear wasn't explored in any greater detail. This is most evident as the final antagonist chasing Kirk and Spock - a shadow of a giant growling cat - doesn't exactly get your primal adrenaline pumping.
And the transmuter? Hitting the table? WHAT?
And Lasalle talking command of the Enterprise? WHO???
At one point, it's mentioned that Scottie and Sulu have been kept as catspaws to lure Kirk into the illusionary trap from which there was no escape. Felt more like we were the catspaws watching. Or something.
Review: 2 stars
Synopsis: While beaming back to the ship, Sulu and Scottie go missing and crewman Jackson dies, replaced with a robotic voice saying that the ship is cursed and they'll all die. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to find a haunted house complete with witches, black cats, and other ghoulish imagery. Turns out to be an alien race that can control minds - it's all an illusion - and only an internal feud between Corab and Sylvia makes their escape from captivity possible. Kirk gets the transmuter to destroy the illusion and the two aliens are exposed to be little ankle-high nerf creatures who die shortly thereafter.
Review: There are some cool lines to be found here, but not much substance. "You can't think a man to death" - "I'll bet you credits to navy beans we can put a dent in it" - ghosts, witches, cats belonging to "the twilight world of consciousness".
But all of the haunted house imagery revolved around the notion that they knew what terrified Man the most, at an instinctive level. But the imagery was actually pretty lame and this psychological aspect to fear wasn't explored in any greater detail. This is most evident as the final antagonist chasing Kirk and Spock - a shadow of a giant growling cat - doesn't exactly get your primal adrenaline pumping.
And the transmuter? Hitting the table? WHAT?
And Lasalle talking command of the Enterprise? WHO???
At one point, it's mentioned that Scottie and Sulu have been kept as catspaws to lure Kirk into the illusionary trap from which there was no escape. Felt more like we were the catspaws watching. Or something.
Review: 2 stars
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